May 16, 1918

REPORTS AND PAPERS.

Annual Report of the Department of Public Printing and Stationery for the fiscal year ended March 31, 1917.-Hon. Mr. Burrell.
Return to order of the House with reference to the Imperial Royal Flying Corps in Canada and Returh to order of the House showing the status of Canadian recruits in the Royal Flying Corps.-Hon. Mr. Burrell.

SENATE BILLS.

HALIFAX RELIEF COMMISSION.

Sir ROBERT BORDEN moved that Bill No. 97, respecting the Halifax Relief Commission, be read the first time.

Hon. A@

Charles Joseph Doherty
(Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada)

Unionist

The Bill is simply to make clear that under the provisions of the Act incorporating the Canadian Patriotic Fund, the corporation body was to be entitled to distribute the funds among the relatives resident in Canada of soldiers forming part of our own forces or the Allied forces. Under the present reading of the statute, as the section is worded, it is open to the suggestion that this money is to be distributed among the relatives of soldiers resident, or who were resident, in Canada, when they enlisted, wherever those may be, and on the other hand that the relatives in Canada of soldiers who did not reside in Canada would not be entitled to be considered. The corporation always has acted on the interpretation that all relatives resident in Canada of soldiers actually fighting, are entitled to benefit; and they desire to have it made clear that that is the correct interpretation and the Act is for that purpose.